Iowa Pageants; You Ain't in Kentucky No More!?

Our family has been active in pageantry since my oldest, Heaven, now 20, was five months old.  We

have competed in and been a party to filming pageants for television all over the world.  Literally.  The one big take-away from our experiences is that pageants, like people, are different everywhere you go!  On the West Coast, "Gold Coast Pageants" rules the area with some massive Disney themes.  On the East Coast, the personalities of the mothers are twice that of their contestant's and in the south, you either "Go Big or Go Home". Oh, and internationally, they all think American's are nutty with this peculiar child pageant thing.

In Iowa, pageants are a completely different breed.  Iowans are financially practical, so custom dresses, spray tans, flippers and hair pieces are generally out of the question.  Unfortunately, so too are coaching and decent photos.  The combination of all these cost cutting measures generally dooms the Iowa contestant to the "Miss Congeniality" award at big, national competitions.  We also tend to want people to love us for our brains and work ethic, not our fashion sense or beauty.  That is why scholarship pageants, such as National American Miss and America's U.S. Miss are so popular in the state.  These scholarship pageants are more about "youth development" than who has the best spray tan and  high glitz dress.

Piper

My youngest, Piper, will be competing in the Iowa National American Miss pageant on the weekend of April 2nd (Happy Birthday to ME!).  This will be her first time at NAM, which is actually a calculated move.  She just turned 7 years old, so she will "fall back" into the 4-6 year old division and since she has prior pageant experience, but not NAM experience, we hope it plays in her favor to not look like a "Pro" (that's a bad thing in Iowa).  I expect at least 70 girls will be competing for the Princess Title at National American Miss, so it will also be the largest divisional pageant in which she's ever competed.

In true Iowa fashion, we are excited about the opportunity to show off Piper's intelligence as well as her poise, personality and beauty.  With some luck and a lot of preparation, I hope to be updating this blog as the Mom of Iowa's 2016 Princess after April 3rd.  You can follow Piper's journey if you're a friend of mine on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In) or just be sure to "Like" the Iowa Parents on Facebook to see how us pageant pros fair in Iowa. AND, if you have any interest in learning more about the local pageant scene, drop us a comment below, social media message or e-mail at GlamourGirlsDressUp@gmail.com.

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Best,

Heather Ryan
Iowa Parents